PSP8 Survival Kit: Page 7

v. The Effects Browser.  This new feature is fantastic! It's been on my wishlist for ages and I am sure, for plenty of other people too. In a nutshell what this does is allow you to preview all of the built-in native filter effects in one neat little browser. And yes, it's every bit as good as it sounds! Like to take a more in-depth look? I have a tutorial on it right here.

My original image (left) previewed in the new Effects Browser (below).

vi.  The Background Eraser:  A lot of people are in love with this tool already, but I must admit I'm not as impressed as some by it. Don't get me wrong, its basic function (to provide a quick and easy way of deleting an entire background from behind a foreground image) is great, but take it from me, it is no magic fix. From what I've found out so far, it works on some images quite well, but others not so much. It works very well on strong contrasting colours, i.e. if you have a light background, and dark foreground, or vice-versa. However when you have a more mottled image, or your background is of a similar shade and colour to your foreground, then it does not work quite so well (see mosque image, below). However all this is just my opinion, and there are other people out there who would say the advantages of this tool outweigh its disadvantages.

As there are already quite a few tutorials out there on this tool, I'm not going to write one myself, but thought I'd mention a couple of things I've discovered that makes it easier for me to use. Firstly, make sure you have the precise cursors switched on: File>Preferences>General Program Preferences>Display and Caching>Use precise cursors. This is particularly important for this tool, as it's vital to know where those crosshairs (which denote the exact center of the brush) are. While running the background eraser over the edge of your image, it's very important to keep the center of the brush carefully positioned to one side of the object's edge - let me explain.

Say for example, you have an image of a big, red, rosy apple in a bowl of fruit, and you want to keep the apple but get rid of the rest of the fruit and the bowl. As you're sweeping the eraser over the edge of your apple, make sure you keep the center of the brush away from the edge of the apple; it's the center of the brush which controls what is erased, and you don't want the apple's edge to disappear along with everything else. It's a little bit of a juggling act, making sure those crosshairs don't go over your actual image as you're sweeping the BG eraser over the edge of it, but it's really not as hard as it sounds - have a practice yourself and you'll see what I mean :).

Background Eraser brush, with crosshairs correctly positioned	The result. . . . .	The result when the cross-hairs are not positioned properly. . . yuck!

Secondly, if you have a very 'messy' image with lots of angles (i.e. a hand with fingers) you might want to use the background eraser set to a smaller size, as not to accidentally rub out a finger along the way. Another thing I've found to be of benefit is to release the mouse button frequently, instead of dragging it right around your object in one big sweep. Then if you accidentally wipe out some of those pixels you actually want to keep, it's easier to undo your mistake and just go back one step, instead of having to go right back to the very beginning.

If you look closely above, you will see all the stray pixels (which I've highlighted with the magic wand) left behind by the Background Eraser - even after several passes over the same areas.